Two young boys strike up a friendship while they were playing together. Strangers till they met, the boys explore their common fascination for each other’s toys, just as little children do. One of them shows the other, the picture of a lion he had drawn, while the other talks about the wooden sword made by his father. Suddenly, the parent of one of the boys calls him away, leaving the other child behind.
‘Wooden sword’ is a short film by director duo Behzad Alavi and Sousan Salamat. What starts as an innocent interaction between two children, soon graduates into a scene from a grave situation concerning the adults. The directors lead us through the innocent world of children where wooden swords and pictures of lions take CenterStage until we graduate to the other world of real swords and lion tattoos. The camera captures the innocence of the young children as they explore their worlds, making discoveries together, until, it turns around to show us the real world in which the children create their fantastical world. The dramatic change in the visual setting in tune with the change in the storyline adds a new dimension to the visual aspect of the storytelling. The camera angles reiterate the fact that this is a story about the world of the young children and there is no deviating away from this story, no matter what.
‘Wooden sword’ is a comparison between the world of children and that of their parents. As the children play with their toys and the parents deal with their realities, both do not realize how much their actions influence the other.
